www.thehansindia.com KURNOOL SATURDAY 6 OCTOBER 2018 PAGES 16 `5.00 Forecast: Sunny Temp: Max.34°C. Min.25C. Humidity: 40% Sunrise: 06:08 Sunset: 06:03 HYDERABAD A SAFE BET FOR REALTY BIZ RBI keeps key rates unchanged If allies want, I will be PM: Rahul New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he will become prime minister if allies want him but the first step is for all parties to get together and defeat the ruling BJP. It's a twostage process and a decision on who will be prime minister comes second, Gandhi said. "We have had discussions with allies and what we decided is that this is a two-stage process," the Congress president explained. TTD GEARS UP FOR NAVARATRI BRAHMOTSAVAMS AP NOT TO GIVE POLICE COVER FOR I-T SLEUTHS A woman gets her back painted on a theme to create awareness for 'Save the Lion', ahead of Navratri festival, in Ahmedabad, on Friday Mumbai: The Reserve Bank on Friday unexpectedly maintained status quo on the benchmark interest rate but warned that volatile and rising oil prices and tightening of global financial conditions pose substantial risks to the growth and inflation. The repo rate, at which the RBI lends to the system, will continue to be at 6.5 per cent, the reverse repo, at which it absorbs excess funds, will be at the same level of 6.25 per cent. The MPC voted 5:1 in favour of a status quo, with only Chetan Ghate voting for a 0.25 per cent hike. S P5 REGION WINDOWS BUSINESS H Simultaneously published from Hyderabad | Warangal | Tirupati | Amaravati | Visakhapatnam | Khammam | Kurnool | Delhi H OUR BUREAU Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugs Russian President Vladimir Putin before their meeting at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi on Friday DELHI IGNORES US THREAT India, Russia ink S-400 missile deal New Delhi: Brushing aside US threat of sanctions, India and Russia on Friday concluded a deal for supply of S-400 Triumf long-range surface-to-air missile system giving a substantial boost to air defence capabilities of the Indian Air Force. The $5.4 billion (around Rs 40,000 crore) deal was concluded during the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, though both the leaders made no mention of it in their statement to the media, apparently in view of the sensitivities involving the United States that has been pressing India not to go ahead with the deal. Nor was the missile contract part of the signing ceremony for eight deals inked by the two sides in the presence of the two leaders covering areas of space cooperation, railways, nuclear cooperation, fertilisers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Continued on Page 15 Amaravati: In a signiﬁcant development, the AP state cabinet has decided not to provide police protection to I-T department ofﬁcials while they raid the residences of the Telugu Desam functionaries or sympathisers. The cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at Secretariat here on Friday, is understood to have felt that since the raids smacked of political vendetta, the state should not cooperate with the central agency by obliging its request for police protection. When the issue came up for discussion in the cabinet, Naidu was in two minds on whether the state could turn down the request of the I-T department for police protection or play along but after the Law department made it clear that the state has the right to reject the request, Naidu is understood have decided against extending any cooperation to the I-T department. The legal counsels apprised Naidu that when the central agencies made similar raids in Tamil Nadu, the TN government refused to play ball. Continued on Page 15 Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu presiding over the Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat in Velagapudi on Friday I-T raids rattle TDP rank & ﬁle n Naidu smells political vendetta behind the raids OUR BUREAU Amaravati: As dawn broke on Andhra Pradesh on Friday, panic gripped several industrialists, businessmen, a few TDP leaders and several of those who are well-heeled with TDP DNA with news spreading that IT teams have fanned out across the state, preparing to raid their offices and residences. The IT sleuths had even caused anxious moments to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who in fact summoned a couple of ministers in the morning, advised them to be cautious and felt that the IT raids going on in the state reeked of political vendetta by the BJP against the TDP. The general feeling among the TDP functionaries in the state was that the IT department has begun a clampdown on those who have something to do with the TDP to convey a message that it would not spare those who are in higher echelons in the government and party. Continued on Page 15 SC sets Nov 15 for ﬁnal hearing on Polavaram OUR BUREAU KCR addressing Praja Ashirwada Sabha in Wanaparthy on Friday KCR dares Naidu on cash-for-vote OUR BUREAU Hyderabad: Resurrecting the bogey of cash-for-vote scam to ﬁx his AP counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana caretaker Chief Minister and TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao on Friday reiterated that the AP leader's voice-records had proved his involvement in the impropriety beyond any doubt. The Telangana chief minister, taking Naidu to task for the third straight day at ‘Praja Ashirwada Sabha’ in Wanaparthy, dared him to prove that he was not guilty. Continued on Page 15 New Delhi: A Supreme Court Bench, in a big relief to Andhra Pradesh, turned down the appeal of the Odisha and Telangana governments to review the submergence caused by the Polavaram backwaters afresh. No study was required into the matter as it was a settled issue, it observed. Earlier, counsel for the Centre, Pinky Anand, said there was no CENTRE SAYS NO NEED FOR ANOTHER STUDY ON BACKWATERS need for going in for a fresh study on the issue. The SC posted the case further to November 15 to hear on the plea of Odisha to renew stop-work-order. A three-judge Nobel Peace Prize honours ﬁght against sexual violence Oslo, Norway: The Nobel Peace Prize on Friday was awarded to a Congolese doctor and an Iraqi woman who was held captive by the Islamic State group for their work to highlight and eliminate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad “have made a crucial contribution to focusing attention on, and combating, such war crimes,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its announcement. “Denis Mukwege is the helper who has devoted his life to defending these victims. Nadia Murad is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others.” Mukwege, 63, founded a hospital in eastern Congo’s Bukavu and has treated thousands of women, many of whom were victims of gang rape. Armed men tried to kill him in 2012, forcing him to temporarily leave the country. Murad is one of an estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women who were victims of rape and other abuses by IS militants. She managed to escape after three months and chose to speak about her experiences. At the age of 23, she was named the UN’s ﬁrst Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. Her book, “The Last Girl,” tells of her captivity, the loss of her family and her eventual escape. Both honourees are the ﬁrst from their countries to receive a Nobel Prize. The award comes amid heightened attention to sexual abuse of women in the workplace and socially, broadly referred to as the “#MeToo” movement. ‘Unmanned level crossings’ to be passe by Dec New Delhi: Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the entire rail network would be free from “unmanned level crossings” by December. He said only three rail accidents took place due to unmanned level crossings in the last six months (April-October) as compared to 118 in 2013-14, barely three years ago. Interacting with the audience at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here, Goyal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to do away with all unmanned level crossings. From 2014-17, the Railways eliminated about 1,100 unmanned level crossings every year. There were around 5,500 unmanned level crossings on the rail network across the country out of which, around 5,000 have been eliminated as of September 30. The remaining 474 would be eliminated by December. Goyal, who took charge as Railway Minister on September 4, 2017 against the backdrop of a major rail accident, said his first meeting was on safety in which he promised to eliminate every unmanned level crossing in a year. Initially, railway officials said it was not possible to eliminate all unmanned level crossings in a year but Goyal hailed them saying it is they who have achieved the target themselves. bench of Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice S Abdul Nazeer has scheduled the application for ﬁnal hearing. The counsel told the court that a complete study was conducted on the Polavaram dam by former Central Water Commission member M Gopalkrishna on the direction of the apex court in 2011 and he also submitted the report. The counsel said there is no requirement for a further study on the project. However, in his argument, the Odisha government advocate said Odisha had objected to the Gopalkrishna report. Continued on Page 15 FUNDING CENTRAL INSTITUTIONS AP white paper puts Modi govt in a spot OUR BUREAU Amaravati: In what has turned out to be an embarrassment to the BJP, the AP government on Friday released a white paper on the establishment of Central educational institutions since 2014, assured under the AP Reorganization Act. The state government released it to counter the claims of the BJP and Union ministers that they have fulﬁlled all the promises made under the Act and had done even more. HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, releasing the white paper said the Central government and BJP leaders had been misleading the public. He demanded that the Centre do likewise for the truth to come out. Even after four years, the Central government released only Rs 746 crore as against the required Rs 12,446 crore. This was just 5.58 per cent of the required funds. At this rate, it would take 20 to 30 years to establish 11 institutes in a fullﬂedged manner, he said. On the other hand, the state government had provided 2,912 acres of valuable land and released Rs 132 crore for land acquisition and construction of compound walls for the 11 educational institutions. Ganta explained that ﬁve institutions have been function- Ganta Srinivasa Rao ing from temporary campuses since 2015-16, two institutions have been functioning at temporary campuses since 201617 and another two from 201819 in temporary campuses. This apart, the Central government has not yet begun work for setting up tribal university. He took strong exception to Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar's statement that the Central government did more than what was promised to the state. “Javadekar, during the inauguration of the Central University at Anantapur, made tall claims on the assistance given to AP and implementation of the Reorganisation Act. But, he was silent on his demand for a white paper on it,” Ganta said. The Central government released just 3.14 per cent of the estimated Rs 3,125 crore to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Tirupati. Continued on Page 15

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